Taiwan will hold two referenda on gay relationships this fall. Since the Constitutional Court there has mandated that the country give equal rights to gay couples, the right wing has put forth a proposal limiting marriage to different-sex couples and providing civil unions for same-sex couples. The LGBTQ rights movement has qualified another proposal that would open marriage to gay couples. Both will be on the ballot on November 24.
If gay couples are limited to civil unions by the referenda, activists have vowed to go back to the Constitutional Court for an explicit grant of equal marriage rights.
In Honduras, opponents of same-sex marriage were able to meet with members of the country’s high court to express their displeasure at an impending ruling opening marriage to gay couples — following a ruling earlier this year from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that binds all member nations in Latin America to institute marriage equality. President Juan Orlando Hernández said he that personally opposes same-sex marriage, but that all people should be treated with “dignity” and he will abide by the ruling of the Honduran judiciary.
Poland’s high court has ruled that both members of a same-sex couple can register as parents.
Thailand is set to approve same-sex unions — falling short of equal marriage to the consternation of activists.
In Austria, the government finally accepted a court ruling from December that gay couples can marry. The plaintiff couples are allowed to marry now and one of them did this month. All others can marry starting January 1.
